Saturday, March 15, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
Each morning, 22-month-old Edgar Rodriguez awakens unaware of the bad hand life has dealt him.
There is an 80 percent chance he will survive his battle with leukemia, and his parents cling dearly to that encouraging national statistic.
Adrian Rodriguez, a nine-year Las Vegas resident, works hard as a construction lath superintendent, knowing it is doubtful he will ever earn enough money to pay all of his son's ever-mounting medical bills, which now top $250,000.
Lucia Chavez Rodriguez, like her husband, wants the best care possible for her son. But when the housewife and mother of two writes out checks to pay the monthly bills, she shakes her head over how little is left of Adrian's paycheck to meet her family's needs.
"You don't think about it (the medical problems and bills), you just go out and do what you have to do," Adrian said. "Your son is your son -- you just want to do the best for him."
The couple's daughter, Alondra, is 4 and in good health.
Edgar was born in May 1995, and for several months suffered internal infections that baffled his doctors, Adrian said.
"He would get an infection and the medicine would clear it up, then he would get another infection elsewhere," Adrian said. "When he was 9 months old, they found that he had leukemia."
The hardest part of dealing with that bad news for Adrian was translating the name of the life-threatening blood disease for his wife. He uttered the Spanish word: "leucemia" (pronounced: "lay-oo-cee-mia").
"My God, my God -- please don't take him from me," a crying Lucia screamed in Spanish as she raised her arms toward heaven after hearing the frightening word that told of her son's ominous condition.
After 13 months of chemotherapy for Edgar -- another two years of thrice-monthly treatments are planned -- the Rodriguezes have not received any assurances their son indeed will survive childhood, but they are optimistic.
"We believe he will be in full remission in three years -- and it's amazing he has not lost his hair (because of the chemotherapy)," Adrian said.
"What is certain is that we will not be able to pay for his treatment like we are doing now -- $20 here, $40 there."
Adrian has worked for Gypsum Construction Inc. of North Las Vegas since October 1988. He says he has no health insurance.
Enter Harold Lee, founder of Dream Team USA, a new organization that assists parents of severely ill children by conducting fund-raisers to pay medical bills.
To date, Dream Team has paid $1,100 to two hospitals as a result of a raffle it held last October, Lee said. The organization has just $120 left in the bank account set up for Edgar's medical bills.
"We will be holding a yard sale and we have plans to build a race car that will go to events to raise significant money to help with Edgar's medical bills," said Lee, who operates a housekeeping business and says he takes no salary from donations earmarked for his clients.
Lee says organizations like his are necessary because people sometimes don't know how to properly handle money donated to help their ailing children.
"Dream Team USA takes the money right from the account and gives it to the hospital -- the parents don't have anything to do with it," Lee said. "People get into trouble when they take money out of such an account to pay the bills themselves, because then the money is viewed as a gift."
Lee noted that families are taxed on the donated money once they access it from the account. In some cases, families have been known to lose critical public assistance funds because they received such extra income.
That is not the case with the Rodriguezes, who say they receive no public assistance. They also express a sincere interest about wanting to pay what appears to be insurmountable medical bills.
"People tell me all the time about filing for bankruptcy and all of that," Rodriguez said. "But, I don't want to do anything that will affect the treatment my son is receiving."
Dr. Ronald Oseas, a board-certified pediatric hematologist oncologist and Edgar's doctor, said that while the survival rate for children with cancer is improving, the cost for the treatment remains expensive.
"It is intense and costly therapy because there is a lot of hospitalization, tests and medication," Oseas said, declining to discuss Edgar's case specifically because of doctor-patient confidentiality.
"There is a public opinion that when a child gets leukemia or other diseases it is unfair because it was through no fault of their own. With adults, some people say they got cancer because they smoked, drank or lived a certain lifestyle. Kids, however, are innocent."
Oseas said because of protocols that were developed 50 years ago, the 20,000 children with cancer in America today face a better chance for survival.
With new technologies applied to such standardized treatments, doctors are confident that within five years the average rate of survival for childhood cancer victims will rise to about 85 percent.
But, the cost to treat Edgar and others will not be plummeting anytime soon.
Not having a whole lot of funds to work with, Dream Team USA uses old, relatively inexpensive standbys such as fliers to drum up public support.
One flier features a color photo of a smiling Edgar in a hospital bed -- a tangle of wires to medical machinery behind him and a huge stuffed Winnie the Pooh beside him.
"Hi, my name is Edgar -- I ... need your help of a donation to pay my medical bills," says the flier, which includes an account number (942 0002-165 at the U.S. Bank North Las Vegas branch).
Lee, who got into fund-raising work after suffering an industrial accident in Washington state which laid him up for about three years, is well aware of the skepticism surrounding fund-raising organizations today.
So much so, he carries among his paperwork his IRS tax exemption, Nevada nonprofit corporation status, state department of taxation sales tax exemption, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas charitable solicitations permits and Washington and Nevada incorporation documents.
"I'm always ready in case anyone asks any questions about what we are trying to do," Lee said.
Adrian Rodriguez does not question Lee's motives for helping. He is grateful he has had somewhere to turn while in the throes of his family's crisis.
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